speed, Elegance and Luxury : 349 



ran to approximately two and one-half million and in the period 

 1931-1940 it had dropped again to less than one-half million. 



The large liner grew up in the period of unrestricted immigration 

 as a method of providing cheap and yet safe and sanitary trans- 

 atlantic passage for travelers who could afford to expend very little 

 for their passage money. It is interesting to observe that large liners 

 have survived and have even been built in the period when the fren- 

 zied wave of immigrant travel had begun to subside. Possibly this is 

 a hopeful sign that even in the future large ships will continue to 

 provide many people of varied classes with a new and healthier kind 

 of international transatlantic travel. 



It is difficult to leave the great liners without some reference to 

 the sad fact that the newest, largest and finest ships have not infre- 

 quently met with disaster. It was so in the beginning of the liner 

 services as our previous chapter has pointed out in the case of the 

 Collins liners and there is also the matter of the Allen Line record. 

 The case of the Normandie and the other French Line vessels, in the 

 period between the wars, would bear some special study because 

 quite possibly special influences were operating here. 



The Lusitania was sunk in her youth and was an early victim of 

 unrestrained submarine warfare. At the time of her sinking she was 

 one of the largest and fastest liners afloat. Had she survived, it would 

 have been interesting to see whether she could have equaled or ex- 

 ceeded the long and successful career of her sister ship, the Maure- 

 tania. In view of the speed with which the Lusitania was capable it 

 came as a shock to everyone that she should have fallen a victim to 

 the limited powers of the submarine of that period. At the time of 

 her sinking the Lusitania was completing a run from New York to 

 Liverpool. She had 1,959 persons aboard. It was 2 p.m., and the Old 

 Head of Kinsale on the south coast of Ireland was in sight of the ves- 

 sel. This was the same Head on which the famous packet, Albion, 

 had been so dramatically wrecked almost a century before. 



The German submarine U-20, Lt. Capt. Schweiger in command, 

 without warning, approached to within 700 meters of the liner and 

 discharged a torpedo into her starboard side. The mortality of the 

 Lusitania was surprising. Within twenty-two minutes she had dis- 

 appeared beneath the waves, carrying with her 1,198 of the passen- 

 gers and crew aboard. 



The Lusitania sank at a time when President Wilson was trying 

 frantically to keep America out of the European War. President Wil- 

 son, in the face of this ruthless sinking involving the lives of many 



